"In ministry we are called, often enough, to look more closely. Listen more intently. And search out the nooks and crannies of the world around us, and hear the cry of people we might not normally hear."

"Don't be fooled by your dim recollections of Charlton Heston's Moses. This passage isn't about a timid exile's reverent first meeting with the God of his ancestors. Rather, this story is about a no-holds-barred encounter between a wily, even conniving outlaw and a God who's more than up to the challenge of transforming him into an instrument of salvation."

"This divine name is built on the
Hebrew verb "to be" and is related to the divine name used
frequently throughout the Old Testament, "Yahweh," or YHWH (the
transliterated Hebrew consonants without the vowels)."

"It is one of the delights of the Old
Testament that one can be difficult and challenge God and a passive
deference is not necessarily an acceptable trait for a divine call.
Indeed, God could be seen as taking incredible risks with humans who are
very vulnerable and not very reliable at times."

Third Sunday in Lent, The Via Negativa: Old Testament Lessons in
Lent, Jane E. Strohl, Word & World Texts in Context, Luther Seminary,
1995. (Section on this text
begins on page 104.)

"Again, as in the Deuteronomy text,
we are presented with the same core story, a history in the making of a
people oppressed and delivered."

"'God only knows where this dance is
going to take us,' he muttered. He turned to look back at the summit of
the mountain. 'It's up to You,' he shouted. 'I have no idea where we're
heading. Freedom, what a chance, a dance, we're taking!'"

"Set
beneath the mountain where Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments, Saint
Catherine Monastery has been one of the worlds great centers of religious pilgrimage
for over fifteen centuries."

"The
monastery's spiritual heart is the Chapel of the Burning Bush, an unassuming structure of
tremendous religious significance. According the oldest monastic tradition, this chapel
sits atop the roots of the same Biblical bush "that burned with fire, and was not
consumed" (Exodus 3:2) when God spoke to Moses for the first time. A few feet away
from the Chapel is the reputed bush itself, a rare species of the rose family called Rubus
Sanctus."